Excalidraw vs Mermaid

Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.

Excalidraw

Open-source whiteboard for hand-drawn style sketches and diagrams

Free plan · from $6/mo

Mermaid

Text-based diagramming platform with AI and a visual editor

Free plan · from $10/mo

Where they differ

Excalidraw starts at $6 per user / month, billed annually. Mermaid starts at $10 per user / month, billed annually ($120 a year).
Excalidraw is open source, self-hostable and end-to-end encrypted, according to its own site.
Excalidraw also covers whiteboard.
Mermaid also covers presentations.

In commonFree planWebAI featuresReal-time collaborationDiagrams

	Excalidraw	Mermaid
Pricing	Free plan	Free plan
Starts at	$6 per user / month, billed annually	$10 per user / month, billed annually ($120 a year)
Free plan	Free editor: full drawing tools on 1 infinite scene, unlimited collaborators, export to PNG, SVG or a file, libraries and limited generative AI. No account and no cloud saving.	Basic plan: 3 diagrams (the comparison table on the same page says up to 6) with a limited diagram size, 15 AI credits, one team and project, and co-editing and external sharing.
Free trial	14-day free trial of Excalidraw+	Free trial of Plus or Premium; the vendor does not state how long it lasts
Web
Made by	Excalidraw	Mermaid Chart
Price read from	plus.excalidraw.com	mermaid.ai
Checked	Oct 5, 2026	Oct 6, 2026

Excalidraw

Mermaid

Excalidraw

The free editor has 1 scene and no accounts or cloud saving; anything else has to be exported or saved to a file.
Unlimited scenes, comments, access management, presentations and voice hangouts all need Excalidraw+.
The vendor's pages list no desktop or mobile apps; Excalidraw runs in a web browser.
Excalidraw+ bills every seat in every workspace, accepts credit cards only, and its terms make charges non-refundable.

Mermaid

The free Basic plan is listed as 3 diagrams on its plan card and up to 6 in the comparison table, with a limited diagram size and 15 AI credits.
Paid plans are billed annually only; the vendor's FAQ says monthly plans are not available.
AI credits are capped at 300 a year on Plus and 2,000 a year on Premium; only Enterprise is listed as unlimited.
Free viewer seats start at Premium, and SSO, invoicing and a customer success manager are limited to Enterprise.

Excalidraw

Hand-drawn style canvas: An infinite canvas with elementary drawing tools and a sketched, hand-drawn look. Keyboard shortcuts and a command palette speed up drawing.
Collaboration by link: Sharing a link starts a live session that anyone can join without an account. Excalidraw+ adds read-only links, edit or view rights, comments and embeds.
Libraries: Public libraries supply ready-made sketches to drop into a scene. A personal library is kept in the browser on the free editor and on the server with Excalidraw+.
Generative AI: Text to diagram builds and edits diagrams from a prompt, and wireframe to code turns a sketch into an interactive mockup. AI use is limited on Free and extended on Plus.
Excalidraw+ workspace: Scenes sync to the cloud and are organized into collections, with user accounts, team management and access control. An MCP server lets AI agents draw into a workspace.
Presentations and voice: With Plus, frames become slides for live presentations, scenes export to PDF and PPTX, and collaborators can talk over voice hangouts with screen sharing.

Mermaid

Diagrams from Mermaid code: Diagrams are written in Mermaid syntax and laid out automatically. Clicking a node jumps to its code and clicking the code finds its shape, so the two stay in step.
Mermaid AI: A description, an uploaded document or a pasted transcript becomes a first-draft diagram, and the AI suggests a fitting diagram type. Use is metered in credits below Enterprise.
Visual Editor: Nodes, edges, labels, colors and shapes can be changed by clicking and dragging while the code rewrites itself, with node alignment and movable edges for tidying a layout.
Live co-editing and share links: Teammates can co-edit a diagram at the same time, and a share link lets other people view it without logging in. Free viewer seats are part of Premium and Enterprise.
Plugins and MCP server: Plugins cover VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Cursor, Windsurf, Confluence, Jira, Google Docs, Word and PowerPoint. An MCP server lets Claude, VS Code and Cursor generate diagrams.
Presentations: Existing diagrams become slides written in Markdown. A deck updates when its diagrams change and can be shared through a public link for viewing and comments.

Excalidraw

Free$0
Full editor with 1 infinite scene, unlimited collaborators by link, PNG and SVG export, libraries, and end-to-end encryption in the browser.
Plus$6
per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)
Unlimited scenes and folders saved to the cloud, edit or view-only sharing, comments, team management, presentations, voice hangouts and extended AI.

Mermaid

Basic$0
3 diagrams with a limited diagram size, 15 AI credits, and one team and project. Co-editing and external sharing are included.
Plus$10
per user / month, billed annually ($120 a year)
Unlimited diagrams with no size limit and 300 AI credits per year, for individuals who diagram often.
Premium$20
per user / month, billed annually ($240 a year)
Everything in Plus, plus 2,000 AI credits per year, unlimited free viewer seats, and unlimited teams and projects.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Premium, plus SSO, custom contracts and invoicing, IP management, user consolidation and a dedicated customer success manager.

Excalidraw

Annual discount
Save 14% with annual billing
Excalidraw+ is $6 per user a month when billed annually and $7 when billed monthly. The pricing page states the annual saving as 14%.
Education
Excalidraw+ for $4 a month with a school email
Students and teachers with an educational email address can get Excalidraw+ for $4 monthly or $36 yearly, shown at checkout or after verification.

Mermaid

No public discounts listed.